After rains washed out Wednesday night at the Knoxville Raceway, the skies finally gave a sigh of relief as Thursday's Lucas Oil Qualifying Night opened up the 54th running of the FVP Knoxville Nationals presented by Casey's General Store with Brian Brown scoring his third victory of the week during Southern Iowa Sprintweek.

In Victory Lane, Brown explained that he was running out of tear-offs and was signaling to his crew on a Lap 19 red, "Their answer was let's just get the lead, and not worry about the tear-offs."

Going after Sam Hafertepe, Jr. for the lead on the restart, Brown had to re-think his approach after nearly making contact with the Lone Star Speedway No. 15h, "I guess I'm getting a little bit smarter in my old age," joked Brown.

"The car was pretty good, we weren't great...probably not as good as we've been...but we were able to maneuver there on that restart. I got a good run on Sam [Hafertepe] and was going to try and slide him, and thought why not try and stick it, and I did, but then he kind of chopped me so I rolled out of it and said well--I guess I'll just run second--but then I got a pretty good run and stuck it there on the bottom."

Gridding the FVP / Casey's General Store No. 21 fifth, Brown began working through a torrid battle from second through fifth. Moving to third on Lap 16, Brown gave chase as Sam Hafertepe, Jr. worked on running down Jeff Swindell for the lead.

Setting a blistering pace through slower traffic, Sam Hafertepe, Jr. grabbed the lead on Lap 14 with Brown working past Swindell for second five laps later.

Rolling to the red on Lap 19 for the No. 71 of Kevin Swindell, Brown worked low on Hafertepe on Lap 20, but would have to wait until the following revolution to grab the point for his twenty-ninth Knoxville Raceway triumph; putting the No. 21 second in the week's standings with 485 points.

Sam Hafertepe, Jr. posted a runner-up finish to put himself fifth in the overall standings going into Saturday night with 457 points.

"You never want to see a yellow flag with the No. 21 behind you for sure," said Hafertepe of the restart with six laps to go. "We were getting through traffic really awesome, and felt like we were really gapping ourselves just hitting the bottom really good, and on the restart, I just said...You know what...I'm just going to make these guys drive underneath me. It was pretty hard to hit down there, and if anyone could hit it, it's Brown, and thought we were going to have enough momentum to make him stay on the outside and maybe hold him off. I chopped him one time, and thought about chopping him again, but he had such a good run coming off the bottom; I didn't want to lose a couple more spots."

Kerry Madsen posted his best preliminary night finish to complete the night's podium; getting around Jeff Swindell on the restart as the No. 94 began slowing in the closing laps. Madsen's third place finish effectively positioned the No. 29 atop the points with 491.

"We got great points, and should have a fairly good starting position on Saturday night. We just had a great night," commented Madsen. "We're having a little fun, not really taking anything too serious, and just enjoy having a good night"

Terry McCarl from sixth gabbed fourth with Bryan Clauson slipping to round out the top-five.

Paul McMahan was sixth with Jason Johnson seventh from thirteenth. Joey Saldana from the night's B-Feature came from twenty-second to eighth as the night's Hard Charger. Clint Garner and Jon Agan completed the top-ten.

Thursday night saw 52 drivers drawing in to take time. Paul McMahan set the fast time at 14.633 seconds. Five Heat Races went to Bill Balog, Jon Agan, Jack Dover, Ian Madsen, and Kevin Swindell. C-Feature action was won by Dustin Selvage with the B-Feature topped by Cody Darrah.

Kerry Madsen leads the points with 491 markers. Brian Brown with 485, Paul McMahan at 484, Terry McCarl with 481, and Sam Hafertepe, Jr. at 457 make the top-five point getters after the first night of competition.

Drivers originally scheduled to run Wednesday night will get their chance to qualify on Friday, August 9 with racing getting underway 7:15 P.M. (CT). For more information, log on to www.KnoxvilleRaceway.com!410 Results

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